The present invention generally relates to apparatus for illuminating footwear and more particularly to a circuit for illuminating footwear which includes a circuit combining a switch having a resilient spring and a light sensitive switch.
Apparatus for illuminating footwear are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,009, “Flashing Footwear” discloses an article of footwear including a battery and a light source and a motion responsive switch to intermittently connect the battery to the light source. The light source is preferable an LED and there is preferably a circuit to extinguish the light after a predetermined interval. The article includes neither a resilient spring nor light sensitive switch, either alone or in combination.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,794, “Illuminated Footwear with Acceleration Responsive Random Output Selection” discloses a shoe including a switch having a fixed end for connection to one side of a battery and a movable end for contacting one of a plurality of selectable conducting members each connected to a separate terminal of a sub-circuit. Each sub-circuit contains a source of light or sound with a common terminal at the opposite end from the separate terminal and connected to the other side of the battery. The switch movable end moves substantially randomly or in random patterns under inertia to contact a conducting member to complete a sub-circuit. The shoe includes neither a resilient spring nor light sensitive switch, either alone or in combination
As can be seen, there is a need for a circuit for illuminating footwear which includes a circuit combining a switch having a resilient spring and light sensitive switch.